


Little Things

by Esyla



Category: Downton Abbey
Genre: F/M, Friends to Lovers, Revelations, Tumblr Fic, season six and beyond rewrite
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-03
Updated: 2017-01-03
Packaged: 2018-09-14 09:35:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9173974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Esyla/pseuds/Esyla
Summary: Like the ocean building a sand bar with each tide, it's the little things that build up to their love.





	

**Author's Note:**

> *shows up several years late to a ship with starbucks*
> 
> Guess who just mainlined Downton Abbey in 6 days and now needs to write something? Me. The answer is me.
> 
> No Henry in this. I mean he exists somewhere but that boy just doesn’t show up for reasons that will become clear.

 

It’s the little things that build up over time. At no point does Mary think to herself that she is deeply in love with Tom Branson and wants to spend the rest of her life with him. 

She just does.

They go to York to look for locations for Tom’s shop. Tom had made all the calls to the landlords so when he and Mary show up it’s “Good day Mr Branson, Mrs. Branson.” They see the rings on Tom’s and Mary’s fingers and jump to that conclusion. At the first location Mary corrects the man. At the second location Tom corrects the couple. At the third location Mary meets Tom’s eye and just shrugs.

They don’t exactly laugh about it later but they smile about it.

“I thought it would upset you.” Mary admits.

“I was more concerned about it upsetting you.” Tom counters with a twist of lips.

Neither of them brings it up at dinner, or breakfast, or really ever again but the memory sits in the back of their minds holding space. 

When Robert and Cora want to break bad news to Mary they send Tom. No one ever expressly says “Tom is the only one Mary won’t snap at” but it’s understood by everyone. He breaks the news that Edith is pregnant and Mary behaves genuinely happy, sending a letter to her sister. 

The simple fact is that Tom and Mary talk. Cora has her work at the hospital. Robert takes up gardening, converting a shed into a greenhouse for his plants. Tom and Mary are often just left together. It becomes habit, routine, to talk choices over with one another before discussing it with the family at large. 

Mary with ink on her hand and a ledger book between them as they talk about costs and benefits of sheep. Tom with grease under his nails and a smudge on his shirt drinking wine in a pub so Mary doesn’t feel out of place, even if she has straw on her dress. 

They eat most meals together these days. That was true before but now it's almost as if the set is Tom and Mary and then add on any other family members, before it was The Family. 

“We ought to make a decision about Sybbie’s school.” Tom says it without completely knowing what he is saying. He thinks maybe he meant to imply the family as a whole, only it’s just Mary and George with him at the moment. 

“I thought we had decided on the school in York, near your work.” Mary answers absently, busy helping George and Sybbie arrange a cast collection of wooden toys to fight in glorious battle.

“You had decided, I’m not so certain.” Tom clarifies.

“Please don’t make me state my case again, darling.” Mary huffs and then goes back to playing with the children. 

Later the conversation sounds very…. Married, in Tom’s head. 

Sybbie calls George brother at her birthday party. She is talking to someone from the village and states the matter very clearly for many to hear.

“My brother George is turning five soon.” Sybbie tells the woman. 

“Is that so dear?” The woman doesn’t correct Sybbie because… well perhaps the woman isn’t clear either. 

“My Mary is throwing him a party just like this for his birthday.” The woman smiles and gives a laugh but later Tom has to ask his daughter what that was about.

“George is your cousin, Sybbie darling, not your brother.” Tom reminds her as he dresses her for bed.

“But Papa, George and I are family and we live together. We should be brother and sister.” Sybbie twists her little lips at him, an imitation of Mary’s face when she wants something.

It’s a shocking thought. Everyone always talks about how much Sybbie looks like Sybil, and she does, but her mannerisms are all Mary these days.

“You are cousins, dear.” Tom continues. 

“What if I wanted Georgie to be my brother?” Sybbie asks later as Tom is tucking her into bed.

“I would have to be married to Mary for you to be his sister.” Tom offers with a chuckle.

“Do that.” Sybbie smiles and nods with such confidence. “Mary can be my mama. I won’t mind.” Tom just kisses his daughter and prays that she doesn’t repeat any of this to nanny. 

“It is very unsettling when the two of you do that.” Edith comments at dinner.

“Do what?” Mary asks her sister. They are visiting Edith and Bertie, to welcome the newest member of the family. 

“Have entire conversations of meaningful eye contact across the table.” Edith supplies with a motion at Tom. “You are much better at it than Mama and Papa.”

“Yes, well Tom and I are in business together. It makes you closer than marriage.” Mary remarks with an airiness she doesn’t feel all the way through.

“What an interesting thought.” Edith muses. Across the table Tom catches Mary’s eye, asking with just his face what that was about. Mary purses her lips and raises her brows in response. Tom gives a soft laugh and goes back to speaking to the woman on his right. 

“See.” Edith interjects into Mary’s thoughts. 

They get on with life. Tom’s car business gets up and running smoothly. Mary adds sheep and goats to property. Sybbie starts attending school and George gets a tutor. Robert and Cora travel between Downton and Brancaster so often that they are rarely ever at home. 

Tom and Mary form a unit. They do so many things together these days it’s hard to think of them as anything but a unit. Mary comes into York to have luncheon with Tom at least three times a week. Tom makes an effort to spend time with George if Mary is occupied. They go upstairs together most nights because they are the only ones at home. When Mary is off in the fields Barrow will give Tom the papers for the Abby, even though he isn’t the agent. Mrs Hughes has Tom help her with menus for two weeks while Mary goes to research dairy cows. 

They pick Sybbie up from school together, each of them kissing her head and hugging the small girl. When it’s time for George to go away to school Tom is there along with Mary to see the boy off. Tom wraps his arm around Mary’s shoulders as she cries the moment George is out of sight. 

They raise their children together and it doesn’t seem like anything much at the time.

There are men who come to Downton for Mary. Sometimes she meets them in London or Brancaster, sometimes they are old acquaintances from long ago. Every couple of months one man or an other will show up. If Robert and Cora are away then Grandmama, Cousin Isobel and Lord Merton are asked up to the house to keep the party more lively. 

 

Many are never seen or heard from again. A few are lucky enough to return at what might be called a regularity. Tom talks to all of them because they seem him as a possible ally. Tom even likes a few of them who don’t look down on him or seem confused by his occupation. 

 

“I think it’s time to make a spreadsheet.” Tom offers at breakfast the morning after one such evening. “To have an accurate list of all the suitors and their qualifications.”

 

“You joke but Cousin Isobel would love that.” Mary admonishes with a pointed fork. She still eats with completely perfect manners but in the past few years Mary has loosened up a great deal with Tom. 

 

None of the suitors seem to stick around. Cora and Robert worry that Mary is lonely.

 

“Why would I be lonely?” Mary asks Tom in the car to York. She smiles at him and the other half of her sentence hangs silent in the air between them.

  
  


There is a woman in York who smiles at Tom. She works at the bank and walks past Tom’s shop on her way to and from work each day. On one occasion she ducks into the repair garage to get out of the rain and Tom offers her tea. 

 

Her name is Ada Pramwell and she asks Tom to tea next Thursday. He says yes because he doesn’t have any appointments that day and he isn’t sure how to say no. Tom doesn’t tell Mary at dinner.

 

Next Thursday, while he is sitting down to tea with Ms Pramwell is when it finally all settles into a picture in his mind. Tom finds that he likes Ms Pramwell with her ambition and interests but when she smiles at him and leans forward across the table just a little his stomach drops.

 

She’s flirting, he realizes with a cold tingle down his spine. It’s wrong. Women aren’t supposed to flirt with him. 

 

Because….. 

 

Oh. 

Tom doesn’t rush home to make some grand reveal. He spends three weeks in a state of semi shock until Mary yanks it out of him at breakfast.

 

“Are you going to tell me what’s troubling you or do I need to get Barrow involved?” Mary teases but Tom hears the real threat to involve their very nice (now) but devious butler. 

 

“A woman flirted with me recently.” Tom admits before he can come up with a more complete answer.

 

“Tom, darling, if a woman flirting with you causes this much malaise we might need to take you to a doctor.”

 

“It’s not that,” Tom puts down his fork and wipes his hands on his napkin. “I realized something when she was flirting with me.”

 

“What’s that?” Mary raised inquisitive brows at him. 

 

“I don’t want to be flirted with by anyone with the exception of you.” There, he’s said it.

 

Mary stops eating, setting her fork and knife down silently. She looks at him. Not looks, gazes. Not gazes, investigates and calculates. The moment hangs in the air and Tom thinks the whole world might be holding it’s breath.

 

“That is certainly something to consider.” Mary relents. Tom feels air in his lung again but know this is just the start.

 

Mary goes to Edith.

 

It’s a strange notion but Mary finds that the person she most wants to talk to about this is her sister. It might show growth on her part, that Mary seeks out the person she is sure will protest the most to this idea.

 

Edith is the picture of happiness, with her three children and adoring husband. The castle and rank barely seem to factor into their relationship as far as Mary can tell, unless it’s at a formal function of some sort or another.

 

“I am still not sure why you felt it so urgent to come see me.” Edith give Mary tea in the small library and Mary is grateful that Bertie and the children are not here for this moment. 

 

“I’ve had a rather unexpected realization that came with an admission and I have come for your advice,” Mary pauses, “and perhaps for your approval.”

 

“I am now very concerned.” Edith sat down next to her sister and offered an air of worry and sympathy. They were what some might consider friends now, the distance helped keep them on friendlier terms.

 

“It has come to my attention that I am in love with Tom.” Mary’s voice is cool but her heart is bursting. “And that he returns the feeling.”

 

Edith is silent for a very long time. Mary drains her tea.

 

“ARe you sure it’s love and not just the deepest of friendships?” Edith ask softly.

 

“Pretty sure.” Mary stands to refill her tea. “When suitors come I find myself hoping they will leave so I can get back to spending time with Tom. I want to see him first thing in the morning and last thing at night. I make plans with him in mind and strangely I think he makes plans with me in mind as well.”

 

“That sounds an awful lot like love.” Edith agrees.

 

“Does it? I’m not as convinced. I don’t feel deliriously happy the way I did with Matthew. I’m not sick with joy.” Mary sighs.

 

“I’ve loved a bit more than you have,” Edith begins. “You only ever really loved Matthew before this so take my word on this as a woman who has loved three men. It’s always a little different.” Mary looks at her sister, blatantly hopeful. “First loves are never repeated. You are allowed to have a second love.”

 

It’s not hard to convince the rest of the family. Robert puts up a stink for about a minute before he realizes that it means Tom will forever have to be the person to battle it out against Mary.

 

“God speed.”

 

“I am not a military vessel, papa!” Mary’s ignant huff just makes her father laugh.

 

The children are delirious with joy. Sybbie claps her new brother on the back excitedly. 

 

“You are finally my brother.” She tells him. 

 

“Please don’t say I told you so.” George sounds morose at having to listen to his sister gloat, but he hugs Tom tightly afterwards and whispers “I love you.”

 

When they kiss it doesn’t make the world stop, just their hearts pound a little bit faster. They both smile more. There is trust and understanding and respect. The rest seems to come so easily with those in place. 

 

Tom doesn’t mind that some of them refer to him as Mr. Mary Crawley he is too busy with his car repair and sale business. Mary seems to enjoy correcting every one enough now that they have opened Downton for tours regularly.

 

“My name is Mary Branson and I shall be your guide for this tour of Downton Abby.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> [ My tumblr ](http://www.alyseofwonderland.tumblr.com)


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